It is well known that once a wine bottle is opened but its content is not consumed rapidly, the oxygen present in the air introduced in the bottle can deteriorate the taste, the color and/or the flavor of the wine, which can result in the remaining wine being discarded. Beside the direct loss to a private consumer, this spoiling of the wine is a reason why most of establishments serving wine serve the more expensive wine only by the bottle and not by the glass, since the wine spoiling would represent a significant loss.
Wine preservation systems addressing the problem of wine spoiling are known. One way to address this problem is to reduce the pressure of the air in the bottle, which can be done, for example by fitting a rubber stopper having a one-way valve and removing the air in the bottle with a vacuum pump removably fixed on the stopper. This type of method usually allows some reduction in taste deterioration of the wine for a few days but has the drawback of not only removing the air from the bottle but also removing volatile flavoring molecules of the wine which can result in an alterted taste, color and/or flavor of the wine. Moreover, this type of method usually uses a hand-actuated vacuum pump, which requires several hand actuations in order to get a sufficient vacuum for an effective preservation. Hence, the degree of preservation is dependent upon user diligence.
Another way to address the spoiling of the wine is to replace the air in the bottle by an inert gas, such as e.g. argon, nitrogen, carbon dioxide or inert gases mixtures. It is known to use an aerosol-style can to deliver an inert gas or a mixture of inert gases into the wine bottle through a straw attached to the can. This system presents several drawbacks as the amount of gas introduced depends on the duration of the spray and the way the straw is inserted in the bottle, making it difficult for the user to use the system consistently and without wasting inert gas, e.g. by over-spraying. There is no limit on the time that pressure can be applied to the spray button, even leading to the delivery of the full content of the can. This can raise another problem, which requires this type of can to be stored in places that are not accessible to children.
A wine dispensing cabinet is known in which an inert gas is introduced in the bottle by an inlet channel pressuring the content of the bottle and allowing to dispense the wine through the outlet by opening a valve. The major drawbacks of this wine dispensing cabinet are its high cost and the fact that it is not ideally adapted to private consumers, e.g. the space requirements of such a system being particularly inconvenient for private consumers or an establishment serving a large number of different wines.
A wine preserving assembly is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,109-B2 that uses a bottle stopper onto which a inert gas supply can be fixed in order to simultaneously introduce the inert gas into the wine bottle through an inlet and evacuating air contained in the head-space of the bottle. The main drawback of this system is that the stopper is a quite complex assembly of valves and a piston, which makes it expensive for the general public, particularly when several wine bottles are to be preserved, since every bottle will require a stopper.
A wine preservation system is also described in European patent application No EP1548098. This approach also uses a bottle stopper on which an inert gas supply can be fixed to introduce inert gas into a bottle. In this system the inert gas is introduced at a pressure of about two atmospheres, the stopper including an outlet valve which allows the gas to exit the bottle only when a pressure slightly under two atmospheres is obtained. Even though the stopper of this system does not include a piston, the complete device is costly since it includes different valves, particularly a pressure specific outlet valve and also due to the system of fixation to the bottle that must be able to sustain a pressure of about two atmospheres. This makes it costly, particularly when several wine bottles are to be preserved, since every bottle will require a stopper.
Therefore, there is still a need for an effective, low-cost and easy to use method for preservation of degradable substances, e.g. for wine preservation.